HS2's barn owl conservation scheme takes flight

As we build Britain’s new high-speed railway, we’re committed to leaving an overall positive legacy for people, places, and nature. One way we’re doing this, is by working with the country’s leading bird experts to conserve and support local barn owl populations between London and Birmingham.

Renowned barn owl ecologist, Colin Shawyer, is one such expert we’ve been working with. Colin has collaborated with the British Trust for Ornithology on major projects including Project Barn Owl (1995–97) and the Barn Owl Monitoring Programme (2000–09). As founder and co-ordinator of the Barn Owl Conservation Network (BOCN), Colin coordinates Barn Owl ringers and nest recorders across the country, overseeing the annual monitoring of over 3,000 nest boxes.

HS2s Biodiversity Manager, David Prys-Jones, caught up with Colin recently to discuss HS2‘s barn owl programme. To date, we have installed over 165 barn owl boxes along the route, with over 40% (64) showing evidence of use by barn owl after just a few years of being in place, which is higher than national occupancy average.

These boxes will mitigate for potential disturbance and loss of breeding and nesting sites within the construction site boundary (plus a buffer of 175m beyond this limit) and are the first part of our longer-term plan to install hundreds more barn owl boxes at a safe distance from the line of the route in advance of the trains running.

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0:00 Introduction
0:13 Surveys and mitigations
0:49 Wildlife Conservation Partnership
1:43 Supporting owl populations
2:01 Close

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If you have a question about HS2 or our works, please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email hs2enquiries@hs2.org.uk.

Видео HS2's barn owl conservation scheme takes flight канала HS2 Ltd